Chapter 5 #2
“Oh, it’s you, Daisy. Have you been sick, too? I can’t see why they’d want to stop the engines in the middle of the sea,
unless they broke down. Don’t tell me the bloody engines broke down?”
“No,” Gloria broke in, “a man fell overboard and they had to stop the ship to fish him out.”
Looking horrified, Wanda gasped, “Fish him … ? No, don’t tell me, Gloria. I’m not feeling strong enough for … Gawd, it wasn’t … it wasn’t my hubby, was it? Break it to me gently!”
“We don’t know who it was,” Daisy said, “but there’s no reason to suppose it was Mr. Gotobed. Was he up on the boat-deck?”
“He went up to smoke his pipe. He says the Smoking Room stinks. I came in here to powder my nose; then I started spewing up my guts and … Oh, Gawd, Daisy, what if it’s him?”
“I’m sure it isn’t,” Daisy said soothingly, but she did not recall seeing Gotobed among those who had gathered at the rail on the boat-deck. “I’ll go and see what I can find out.”
“Me too,” said Gloria, jumping up.
Daisy glanced at the heavy-eyed girl on the chaise longue. “I don’t think Lady Brenda should be left alone.” Especially alone with the appalling Wanda.
“I shall be happy to keep Lady Brenda company,” offered Miss Oliphant. “Another cup of tea cannot hurt her and might help.”
Daisy leant over Lady Brenda. “Just take it easy,” she said. “Don’t try to talk.”
Nodding, the girl touched Daisy’s arm. “I’m feeling much better. Thank you!”
“I’ll be back. Wanda, you don’t look at all well. Why don’t you go to your suite and lie down? I’m sure you’re worrying for nothing, but if … if there’s bad news, I’ll come and tell you, I promise.”
“Blimey, no. I’m that wobbly, I’d never make it. ’Sides, I wouldn’t want to be alone at a time like this.”
She certainly would not be alone in the lounge. A number of women had entered since the Talavera had resumed her voyage. Two or three, pallid-faced, staggered out of the inner room and sank into chairs. Others came in from the promenade, chattering about all the excitement.
“ … unconscious or dead, they say,” Daisy overheard as she and Gloria made for the door.
“But who is he?”
“No one seems to know.”
Almost certainly not Gotobed then. Someone would have recognized the occupant of one of the only two suites aboard, possessor of a glamorous wife much younger than himself, and therefore indubitable target of gossip.
“Alec will know if anyone does,” said Gloria.
“Not necessarily. He’s incognito, remember.”
“I bet he’s found out by now.”
They went out to the promenade. At once four figures converged upon them: Alec, Phillip, Arbuckle—and Gotobed.
“Mr. Gotobed, thank heaven!” Daisy exclaimed. “Wanda has been unwell, and …”
“She’s ill?” cried the anxious husband.
“No, not really, just suffering from the effects of the increased rocking when the ship stopped.” The men, even Wanda’s adoring spouse, all took on the smug look of those immune to sea-sickness.
“But she’s feeling pretty rotten, and she’s got into a bit of a state.
She says you went up to the boat-deck, and she’s taken it into her head it was you who fell overboard. ”
“I was only up there a few minutes. Then I went back to the Grand Salon to wait for her. I must go to her!”
“You can’t go in there,” said five voices in unison.
“Ladies only, sir!” added Phillip, horrified.
“Wanda’s just fine,” Gloria put in. “Miss Oliphant’s looking after her and Lady Brenda, probably gotten her to drink a dose of lemon balm by now.”
“Miss Oliphant?” said Gotobed doubtfully. “She’s an admirable lady, but I don’t know …”
“I’ll go and tell Wanda you’re safe and sound,” Daisy proposed, “and bring her out to you.”
Wanda burst into floods of dramatic tears at the news. At least, she sobbed noisily into her handkerchief. Daisy could not help wondering if they were stage tears. The blooming bride might well be slightly disappointed at the survival of her rich, elderly husband.
Chiding herself for uncharitableness, Daisy patted Wanda’s shoulder. “Pull yourself together,” she urged. “Mr. Gotobed is worried about you.”
“Not half as worried as I was about him. It’s the relief, that’s what.”
“I know, but he’s waiting for you. Do come along.”
The sobbing ceased. “I must look a real fright. I must powder my nose,” said Wanda, and, handkerchief to face, hurried into the inner room.
Daisy turned to Lady Brenda and found her fast asleep. “The lemon balm really worked,” she said to Miss Oliphant. “At least, I’m not at all sleepy—but on the other hand, I don’t feel jumpy from shock anymore.”
Miss Oliphant smiled. “That is probably because you are a strong-minded young woman, but perhaps the tisane helped. I am delighted to hear that the unfortunate person who fell overboard was not Mr. Gotobed. Have you discovered who it was?”
“No, I didn’t have a chance to ask Alec if he had found out. I only wish it may turn out to be the beastly bully Lady Brenda appears to be engaged to. But if her mother is
incapacitated, perhaps I ought to let him know she isn’t well?”
“I think not, my dear. As she fell asleep, Lady Brenda murmured a few words which I understood as ‘Don’t tell Chester.’”
“That’s the chap. I wish I knew … but as Alec says, it’s none of my business. We can’t leave her here though. I’ll have to get a steward to carry her to her cabin.”
“She can walk,” said Miss Oliphant quite sharply. “It was not a narcotic that I gave her. She will be the better, however, for sleeping a little longer.”
“Right-oh. If you don’t mind staying with her, I’ll deal with Wanda first.” Strong-minded or not, Daisy began to wonder why on earth she had taken on responsibility for two weak-minded females. “Or I’m sure Gloria would take over.”
“Mrs. Petrie is an obliging child, but I assure you, I am perfectly happy here.” She took a book from her handbag.
As she opened it, Daisy glimpsed the title: Poisonous Plants of North America. Assuredly, it would be unwise to get on the wrong side of the witch!
Daisy went to collect Wanda. She found her seated before the wide looking-glass, concentrating earnestly on outlining her mouth with crimson lip-rouge.
Seeing Daisy’s reflection, she said defensively, “Mr. Gotobed likes me to look smart. When you get to be my age, you’ll understand how important it is to always make the best of yourself. Not that I’m that much older than you.”
Daisy hastily powdered her own nose, noting that her hatless hours on deck had already brought out a new crop of freckles.
She had given up her fruitless efforts to conceal the little mole by her mouth when Alec told her a face-patch in that position was known as “the Kissing” in the eighteenth century—he had studied the Georgian period at Manchester University.
She delivered Wanda to Gotobed. Tenderly solicitous, he bore her off to their suite to recover from her tribulations.
“Now,” said Arbuckle, “I went along with Mrs. Fletcher and I’ve been telling all and sundry how it was liquor that did the damage. But I heard differently, and I wanna know what’s what.”
“Not here,” said Alec.
“Okay, come along to my suite then.”
“I ought to get Lady Brenda to her cabin first,” said Daisy wearily.
“We’ll see to that, won’t we, Phil?” said Gloria.
“What? Oh, right-ho, if you say so, Glow-worm.”
“Bless you, darling.” Daisy kissed Gloria’s cheek. She was beginning to think that Phillip could not possibly have done better for himself.
As they followed Arbuckle to the suite, Alec said to Daisy, “I assume you have already found out exactly what Lady Brenda claims to have seen.”
“No, actually.”
“Then I’m astonished that you left her in other hands,” he teased.
“I’m tired, darling. Besides, by the time she got over being too upset, she was too sleepy to answer questions. The witch’s potion really seemed to work.”
“You let Miss Oliphant administer a potion? Suppose she’d been in league with the thrower overboard and wanted to silence the only witness?”
“You don’t believe in the thrower overboard,” Daisy pointed out. “Anyway, she couldn’t very well poison her so publicly, and she and I both drank the tisane, too. I’ll talk to Lady Brenda tomorrow.”
“By which time,” Alec said with satisfaction, “she’ll have thought better of her story, if she made it up; or she’ll realize
she can’t be sure of what she saw in that shifting moonlight. Too much to drink is a much more likely explanation.”
“We shall see,” said Daisy.
Arbuckle’s suite was even more spacious than the Gotobeds’, having two sleeping cabins and a commensurately larger sitting room. The paintings on the walls were of the Salamanca and the Ciudad Rodrigo. Otherwise, the furnishings and colour scheme were just the same.
“Night-cap?” offered Arbuckle. “I guess you won’t want Scotch whisky, Mrs. Fletcher. How’s about some Horlicks? My little girl always has her Horlicks at bedtime. Ovaltine it’s called in England.”
“Thanks, I’ll wait till Gloria comes. Alec, do you know who it was, the man overboard?”
“No. I waited till they brought him up, but no one there recognized him.”
“He … he didn’t drown, did he?”
“No, love, but he wasn’t capable of speech. Harvey rushed him below to the sick-bay.”
“What’s this about someone pushing him in?” Arbuckle asked.
Alec sipped his whisky while Daisy told Arbuckle about Lady Brenda’s hysterical outburst up on the boat-deck.
“I don’t imagine there’s anything in it,” said Alec. “With the clouds sliding across the moon, every shadow seemed to move. Lady Brenda is not a reliable witness in any case. A decidedly flighty young thing.”
“Her story oughta be investigated though,” said Arbuckle.
“Well, it’s not my pigeon, thank heaven,” Alec pointed out. Arbuckle frowned.